1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a liquid ejecting apparatus such as an ink jet type printer, a cap device provided in the liquid ejecting apparatus, and a liquid absorbing material provided in the cap device.
2. Related Art
In general, as a liquid ejecting apparatus which ejects ink (liquid) from nozzle openings formed on a recording head (liquid ejecting head) onto a target, for example, an ink jet type printer (hereinafter, referred to simply as “printer”) is widely known. In the printer of this type, so-called cleaning of the recording head is carried out for the purpose of restraining clogging of the nozzle openings by ink increased in viscosity and discharging ink containing air bubbles or dust from the nozzles of the recording head. The cleaning operation is adapted to suck and discharge viscous ink or ink containing air bubbles from the nozzle openings by sucking the content in a cap through a discharging portion of the cap in a state in which the cap is brought into abutment with the recording head so as to surround the nozzle openings. In the interior of the cap, an ink absorbing member (liquid absorbing material) for absorbing and holding part of ink sucked and discharged from the nozzle opening at the time of cleaning is stored.
As a printer provided with a cap in which an ink absorbing member is stored in the interior thereof, a printer described in JP-A-11-157088 is known. In the printer in JP-A-11-157088, an ink suction port (discharging portion) is provided so as to open through a bottom surface in a cap member (cap) and an ink absorbing member is stored in the cap member so as to cover the opening at the ink suction port.
In the printer disclosed in JP-A-11-157088, since a lower surface of the ink absorbing member which comes into surface contact with the bottom surface in the cap member is flat, when the interior of the cap member is sucked through the ink suction port, ink absorbed and held by the ink absorbing member can hardly be guided toward the ink suction port. Therefore, there arises a problem that the ink absorbed and held by the ink absorbing member can hardly be discharged from the ink suction port.